Radial drift and concurrent ablation of boulder-sized objects

Physikalisches Institut & Center for Space and Habitability, Universität Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
e-mail: remo.burn@space.unibe.ch

Received: 26 April 2019
Accepted: 27 July 2019

Abstract

Context. The composition of a protoplanetary disk at a given location does not only depend on temperature and pressure but also on the time dependent transport of matter, such as radial drift of solid bodies, which could release water and other volatile species before disintegration or accretion onto a larger body with potentially considerable implications for the composition of planets.

Aims. We performed a parameter study focused on the water depletion of different sized bodies able to cross the water snowline by gas-induced radial drift.

Methods. Either the analytical Hertz–Knudsen–Langmuir sublimation formula assuming equilibrium temperature within the body or a more involved, numerical model for the internal thermal evolution was coupled with an α-disk model. Different properties of the disk and the embedded body were explored.

Results. Bodies with radii up to 100 m drift faster toward the central star than the water snowline, and can therefore cross it. The region that can be reached before complete disintegration – and is therefore polluted with H₂O ice – extends to 10% closer to the star than the snowline location. The extent of this polluted region could be multiple times larger in the presence of a dust mantle, which is, however, unlikely to form due to frequent collisions with objects smaller than a centimeter.

Conclusions. Given a significant abundance of meter-sized boulders in protoplanetary disks, the transport of water by radial drift of these bodies toward regions closer to the star than the snowline is not negligible and this flux of volatiles can be estimated for a given distribution of solid body sizes and compositions. A simple expression for surface sublimation is applicable for a homogeneous body consisting of only dust and water ice without a dust mantle.